Re: Re[2]: More on mold and the coverup by insurance

[Guest guest]

I guess thge government is no different then the insurance companies

Janet

RE: JANET STEVENS EEO COMPLAINT

Declaration of

Portsmouth Naval Shipyard, GS-802-11

    My name is I am employed at Portsmouth Naval

Shipyard as an Engineering Technician.  I have been employed here since

September 1979.  Additionally, I am presently a Chief Steward of Local 4 of

the International Federation of Professional and Technical Engineers

(IFPTE), a Union in which Janet s was a member until her retirement

under disability.  I became a Steward of IFPTE in April 2002 and was

assigned in May of 2002 to represent Janet s.  Previous to my

assignment, Janet had been in contact with Mike , the 2nd Vice

President to the organization.  Though I had known Janet for many years, she

first asked for help from me regarding her health concerns when we were both

located on the third floor of building 86A.  When I saw her on the third

floor she explained she had been moved to that location (just outside the

wall of the Tom Devaney's, her Division Head, office) because she was having

medical problems at her old location on the first floor of building 86.  She

explained that Tom Devaney was trying to find a location where the

environment did not negatively affect her.  She further explained that this

third floor location was also causing her health problems and that she

desired to move again.  Several contacts were made to Mr. Devaney, and

without the knowledge of the Union, he moved Janet to Building 18.  Building

18 was another space controlled by this Division Head.  Shortly after Janet

was transferred, a portion of Mr. Devaney's wall in his office and another

section of lower wall farther down the building and on the same side of the

building from Mr. Devaney was also removed.  Both areas were replaced with

all new material and painted.

    The Building 18 space provided for Janet was supposed to have a

re-circulating air system.  It was never dependable and most times when I

met with Janet there, the system was not working, and the air was hot and

humid.  Water was always visible in the working areas and near the ladies

room, which was separate from the confines of the workspace.

    I requested to be relieved as Janet's representative in the fall of

2002.  All my files were transferred to another Union representative.  I had

delivered a CD containing a lot of correspondence with Janet to her good

friend Dan Maglaras.  The CD contained several hundred electronic

transmissions, including communications with others involved in the problem.

I did not lose sight of the mold problem, however, as our Union was a member

to a Shipyard Committee selected to combat the problem Shipyard-wide.  Many

people from many buildings were reporting problems.

    Following are events which I consider significant in Janet's claim,

and in which I was directly involved.

    Mr. Tom Devaney, Janet's 2nd line supervisor (titled a Safety

Engineer) and the Code 280 Division Head, was responsible for having Janet

moved from the 1st floor of building 86 to the third floor of building 86A

(outside his office).  He then directed Janet to be relocated to building

18.  Finally he had Janet relocated to building 29.  All of these locations

were areas he controlled as the Division Head and the building manager for

the Engineering and Planning Department.  Mr. Devaney finally began to

search for a permanent solution to the problem of Janet's adaptation to her

environment.  Mr. Devaney, Bob Short (HRO Worker's Compensation expert).

Mari Shults (Janet's 1st Line Supervisor), and I met to discuss strategies

to make Janet a productive worker again.  Ms. Shults had done some research

on a program called " Teleworking. "   This program was based in Federal Law

and was supposed to be applicable to Department of Defense employees.  Bob

Short claimed no such program existed at Portsmouth Naval Shipyard.  Ms.

Shults told some details about the program and said she could restructure

Janet's work (eliminating Confidential requirements from her tasks) and she

would be able to work full time from another location, possibly her own

home.  The only drawback seemed to be the expense of attaching her to the

Shipyard computer system, which was said to cost approximately $5000.  Mr.

Short was to research the " Teleworking " adaptability at the Shipyard and

advise Mr. Devaney.  Much time passed and when I could not get a

satisfactory response from any of the attendees and having read the guidance

from the Department of Defense, I filed an " Unfair Labor Practice " against

the Shipyard via the Fair Labor Relations Board in order to have a policy

instituted at the Shipyard.  The labor practice complaint was denied at the

Board on the grounds that NAVSEA had not directed implementation of the law

at Portsmouth specifically.  Therefore, my documents were not completed

against the proper organization; NAVSEA should have been named.  A

re-submittal was not done.  It should be stated that all those whom I

engaged in conversation regarding " Telework " were opposed to creating a

policy, as it would appear too hard to manage.  When I first contacted HRO

about the policy, I was told they were creating a listing of specific job

assignments where the employees would be eligible for " Telework. "   They then

intended to create the policy based on duties and responsibilities of work,

which could be accomplished away from the facility.  This, too, never

materialized.

    I attended a meeting around this same time in Captain McCoy's

(Shipyard Commander) conference room to discuss the identification of mold

problems on the Yard and to develope solutions for fixing the problems.  The

discussion centered on the seriousness of the problem in the adjoining

buildings 86 and 86A.  Captain McCoy stated that if any employee in these

buildings felt ill or were even nervous about their environment, he would

relocate them to another area.  He said any employee was eligible to be

moved.  He asked for a team of Shipyard employees to be formed to address

problems as they arose and to research a fix to the problem.  He called on

Dr. Clements of the Naval Regional Clinic who attended this meeting to

provide expertise on this health risk.  Dr. Clements advised that he didn't

feel it was serious and that people should use soap, water, and elbow

grease, like he did, to remove the mold from surfaces.  Chuck Vaughan,

temporarily assigned to the Safety Office, gave a short presentation on the

locations where mold was found.  As I remember some of the attendees to the

meeting were Terry Eleftherion (President IFPTE), Arvard Worster (President,

AFGE), Merrill (Head Safety Office), a representative of Facilities and

Maintenance, the previously named, myself and a few others.  The Commander

identified Chuck Vaughan as the lead person in efforts to eliminate the

problem.

    I continued to assist Janet, seeing her almost daily.  I attended a

meeting in building 59 (later remediated for mold) in early summer attended

by Tracey ?????, Bob Short, (IFPTE 2nd Vice President) and

myself.  The purpose of the meeting was to discuss the method for submitting

a worker's compensation claim for Janet.  Bob Short reviewed the conditions

leading to Janet's request for relocation help and checked some facts from

her medical treatment up to that time.  Mr. Short requested documentation

from Janet's doctors(s) and wanted copies of her leave requests.  Mr. Short

explained he was intending to author a cover letter to the claim relating

her relocation to various buildings/areas.

    The four of us (excluding ) had a follow-up meeting

weeks later in building 18.  Janet and I had already been provided a " draft "

of Mr. Short's cover letter, as was agreed during our first meeting.  The

strong memories I have of the cover letter were the words " Portsmouth has

been proactive " in relocating Janet to an accommodating area.  Janet had

already been taken by ambulance from building 18 to a local hospital and

treated for respiratory difficulties.  Janet and I strenuously objected to

the cover letter wording and asked if we could  author a different one.  Mr.

Short said if we persisted he would withdraw from handling the claim and

Janet would be on her own to handle the claim.  Neither Janet, nor I were in

a position to take the claim by ourselves since we knew none of the rules

and regulations involved in filing the documents.  Janet was by this time

wearing a face mask full time while at the Shipyard.  She was also missing a

lot of work and did not want to risk any error we might make in correctly

filing the claim.

    Later in the summer Janet was transferred to work on the second

floor of building 29.  Several Hepa filters were in place in her new

workspace.  Berg, a Code 280 computer specialist was the only other

person assigned to work in this area.  He was often out on calls and Janet

was left alone.  Janet had to go entirely out of the filtered air of her

space to run required Xerox copies and to go to the ladies room.  Her

workspace was monitored at times, but outside wasn't until she had departed

the Shipyard for good.  She almost never saw any of her supervision while in

building 29 and was not given much to do there.  She appeared to be a test

case or maybe more properly stated a guinea pig for how to maintain a person

with possible mold allergies.

    The worker's compensation dilemma continued, as she was required to

see an " outside " doctor in Andover, Ma.  After being skin tested for various

mold strains, she reported she was deathly ill from the effects of testing.

Later during the decision-making, worker's comp wanted her to test again

with the same doctor, but she was too frightened to see this person again.

She was not recommended to any alternate doctor.

    Once I had turned over all files to other representatives in the

Union I was asked my opinion on what could be done by the Shipyard in

Janet's situation.  I recommended the Shipyard place her in an

administrative leave status until a more permanent solution could be

decided; the Shipyard Commander adopted this temporary fix for leave.  An

entire year went by without any person or organization permanently fixing

the problem of Janet.  For sure mold was getting attention and being

remediated building to building.  I was the first to call Rafferty

in Philadelphia to get help on standards to clean up the mess and to have

his company come here to monitor the clean up.  But Janet had gone much to

far - she was calling names of higher ups, right to Senatorial offices.

Many liars along the way were covering up as if they would be held

criminally responsible for this environmental blight.

The safety folks were the worst of all.  They were told of these mold

problems long before Janet became ill.  The worst area for a long time was

designated as the smokers' area.  There were maybe twenty regular smokers

who went there in winter and in bad weather.  Before the space was finally

closed, several people smoked outside the mold area, in the hallway rather

than be exposed.  Safety personnel would appear and look at the area and

then leave again with no action taken.  They spent years ignoring the water

seeping into the rooms of the basement.  They spent years looking the other

way while the mold ate its way up the walls.  They spent years ignoring the

rushing foul air from vaults of material where employees were sent to

retrieve documents.  But there's blame for many, especially those who had

the responsibility to be accountable for the environmental conditions

endured by workers.  People named in this statement and many others are

frightened for their jobs, and they would certainly sacrifice Janet to

maintain their livelihood.

    Why was Portsmouth Naval Shipyard allowed to ignore a lawful

telework policy?  Why doesn't Portsmouth have an EEO accommodation policy in

accordance with Federal law?  Why has Janet been allowed to suffer so much

for so long for these inept leaders?  Why has not one single human being

been able to walk in Janet's shoes?  Does anyone actually think they would

have been treated differently than Janet?  Shhhh, Portsmouth is in hiding.